John Stonestreet – Page 52

Is Buttigieg’s Confirmation Historic?

Feb 4, 2021John StonestreetLGBTLGBTQ

*John Stonestreet, Radio Host and President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.*

CNN’s Jake Tapper, along with many others in the media, used the word “historic” to announce that Pete Buttigieg would be the next U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Headlines made sure to note Buttigieg is the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ cabinet member in U.S. history.

Buttigieg is former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a great town but not one with a complicated public transportation system. When his nomination was announced, Buttigieg tweeted he “loved” transportation and had even proposed to his husband in an airport terminal. Other than that, it’s not clear why President Biden thought him the most qualified person for the job.

To use the term “historic” is to diminish the word, to diminish Buttigieg (who is more than his sexuality), and to diminish his new office, which merits someone with appropriate qualifications.

If firing someone because of their gender identity or sexual orientation is discriminatory, isn’t hiring someone for the same reason just as discriminatory?

Either way, it’s not progress, and it’s certainly not historic.

And Yet Another Study Shows Marijuana Is Dangerous

Jan 28, 2021John StonestreetMarijuanaMarijuana

An oft-repeated line from advocates in and out of American politics is that marijuana, unlike opioids or cocaine, is a “safe drug.” Every campaign to legalize its sale and use repeats this claim. But it’s not true.

A study just published in JAMA Pediatrics found that heavy cannabis use among adolescents and young adults with mood disorders is “associated with an elevated risk of self-harm, overall mortality, and death by unintentional overdose and homicide.”

Making this finding even more significant and ominous is the fact that mood disorders have risen significantly over the past decade among younger Americans.

According to the study’s author, a first step is to educate parents and kids about the risks. That’s true, but we also need to educate politicians and voters that promises of financial windfalls won’t somehow make pot safe, and it’s not the government’s job to incentivize risky behaviors for financial gain.

Amen and A-Women?

Jan 6, 2021John StonestreetCurrent EventsCurrent Events

On Sunday, Democratic Congressman (and, for the record, that’s the gendered term used on his website) Emanuel Cleaver closed his prayer opening the 117^th Congress of the United States by saying, “we ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma, and god known by many names by many different faiths. Amen and a-woman.”

Much fun has been had with the whole “amen and a-woman” part, from pointing out that “amen” is a non-gendered Hebrew way of saying “so be it” to changing words that include “m-e-n” or “m-a-n” and adding “wo” to them.

But there’s also the Congressman’s attempt to inclusively pray in the names of all the gods he could fit in. That was after he prayed: “May the God who created the world and everything in it, bless us and keep us. May the Lord make His face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon us and give us peace…”

How intolerant of the Congressman. After all, not all religions offer a God who created everything, or Who looks on those He made with grace and peace.